This is Dave Edstrom's personal blog called Photons and Electrons. This blog is about technology, as well as some of my personal interests. I am the CEO/CTO of Virtual Photons Electrons. I was the CTO for MEMEX for three years, the President and Chairman of the Board for the MTConnect Institute from May 2010 to January 2014 and prior to that I spent 23 years at Sun Microsystems.

Tuesday, January 10, 2017

I watched President Obama's extremely moving speech in Chicago tonight and I miss him already. He will go down as a top five president. I guarantee it.

You have to judge someone, and especially a President, on the cards he was dealt. President Bush and VP Cheney did tremendous damage to the country by starting wars on lies, tax cuts for the rich, driving the economy into the ditch and raising taxes without paying for them. My generation will never recover from what Bush/Cheney did to America.

He also had to deal with the worst rated congress, whose goal was NOT to do what was best for America, but to make sure President Obama was a one-term President.

As President Obama listed tonight:

Here are just some of his many, many accomplishments:

Reverse THE great recession

The United States was losing 750,000 jobs a month when he took office and when he left we had the longest continuous streak of job growth (80 months) EVER

Unemployment was 10% and it dropped to a low of 4.6% in November 2016

Reboot our auto industry

Unleash the longest stretch of job creation in our history

We would open up a new chapter with the Cuban people

Shut down Iran’s nuclear weapons program without firing a shot

Take out the mastermind of 9/11

We would win marriage equality

Would make it that people of all sexual preferences can open serve their country

Secure the right to health insurance for another 20 million of our fellow citizens

The economy is growing again

Wages, incomes, home values, and
retirement accounts are rising again

Poverty is falling again

The
wealthy are paying a fairer share of taxes even as the stock market
shatters records.

The unemployment rate is near a ten-year low.

The
uninsured rate has never, EVER been lower.

Health care costs are rising
at the slowest rate in fifty years. And if anyone can put together a
plan that is demonstrably better than the improvements we’ve made to our
health care system – that covers as many people at less cost – I will
publicly support it.

Leave with a 60% job approval rating

Did all of this in the classic "No Drama Obama" mode

There were NO attacks on the homeland during his presidency

I know for a fact he did more for manufacturing than any other president before him.

He believes in FACTS when he stated:

"Take the challenge of climate change. In just eight years,
we’ve halved our dependence on foreign oil, doubled our renewable
energy, and led the world to an agreement that has the promise to save
this planet. But without bolder action, our children won’t have time to
debate the existence of climate change; they’ll be busy dealing with
its effects: environmental disasters, economic disruptions, and waves of
climate refugees seeking sanctuary.

Now, we can and
should argue about the best approach to the problem. But to simply deny
the problem not only betrays future generations; it betrays the
essential spirit of innovation and practical problem-solving that guided
our Founders.

It’s that spirit, born of the Enlightenment, that made us
an economic powerhouse – the spirit that took flight at Kitty Hawk and
Cape Canaveral; the spirit that that cures disease and put a computer in
every pocket.

It’s that spirit – a faith in reason, and
enterprise, and the primacy of right over might, that allowed us to
resist the lure of fascism and tyranny during the Great Depression, and
build a post-World War II order with other democracies, an order based
not just on military power or national affiliations but on principles –
the rule of law, human rights, freedoms of religion, speech, assembly,
and an independent press."

He did all of that and more with intelligence, class, style, integrity and humor.

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About Dave Edstrom

This is Dave Edstrom's personal blog called Photons and Electrons. This is the same name of the blog I had for Sun Microsystems for many years. I am the CEO/CTO for Virtual Photons Electrons, LLC. More info is available at http://VirtualPhotonsElectrons.com I was the CTO for MEMEX for almost three years. More information on MEMEX is at http://MemexOEE.com